1st SAL.....Peg, Dale and I committed to stitching Anni Downs - A Gardener's Journal in March. I blogged about this on my blog thinking maybe one or 2 others may join us and lots of girls indicated an interest so I decided to start this blog where we can all encourage each other to meet the goals set along the way....March 2010 -March 2011...........

2nd SAL ......well so many of the girls wanted to continue on with another project and some new girls joined us and now approx 91 girls are stitching Natalie Bird's Tis the Season. March to Sept 2011...............

3rd SAL....many girls want to stick with the SAL so now we have moved onto Anni Downs Some Kind of Wonderful - My Favourite Things Quilt.......Oct 2011-Oct 2012.........

Where are we now.....

4th SAL 2013...is numerous smaller projects from the previous 2 books Tis the Season and Some Kind of Wonderful plus some projects from Red Home by Natalie Bird approx 60 ladies stitching together.........

6th SAL 2017.............A Holly Cottage Christmas by Michelle Ridgway.......once again the pattern is in an affordable book so it is easy for everyone to join in...........and you can raid your stash for the fabrics........or lash out and buy a the whole lot........this SAL will be run by Fiona aka Bubz Rugz and Raewyn........

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

I am lucky enough to work at Cobar Quilt Shop a couple of days a week. We have these Nancy Holvorsen fabrics, "Forever Spring" - my family gave me these for my birthday this year;). Perfect for the Some Kind of Wonderful quilt! I also have selected these from my "stash" and purchased a few new ones for the beige tones-background fabrics...

So...here I go! With maybe a few changes here and there as I find new fabrics... I am sick of reading about needle turn techniques, I think I have read every internet entry on the subject! Just going to wing it, maybe try a couple of different ones and see what I like best. I plan on changing a couple of the blocks a bit...making them a bit more relevent to me...Question: is changing the "old blue jeans" to "comfy trackie daks" daggy? lol...Please tell me what you think. I am on the SAL side bar Suze ( adopted by Kate ). Thankyou Kate for adopting me.. and Chookyblue for letting her!!!

Having had that dreaded summer flu this past week, left me time to quilt when I wasn't sleeping. Friday saw me put the last quilting stitching in that border and yes, I did question my hand quilted flower border about half way around, but am glad that I persisted as I love it.

Saturday saw me cutting down and machine stitching the binding on, and then Sunday while my family worked in the garden I sat on the balcony and completed that last sigh stitch, I love my gardeners quilt and thank you for the inspiration and encouragement to continue on.

Monday, November 28, 2011

I have been very busy with my Xmas sewing and visiting my daughter and her family in NSW as well as having a relaxing break at the beach with another daughter and her family that I have not had time to start the stitch-a-long. 14 more placemats to go and then I can begin.

These are the fabrics I have chosen to use along with the cream ones from my stash. The fabrics were bought at the craft fair in November and my hands have been caressing them and are eager to start cutting. Hopefully I can start in a week or two.

My dear friend Dawn has surprised me with a copy of the "SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL" for my birthday and I cant thank her enough for this generous gift. I have been drooling over the book every day just waiting to start, but I must finish the placemats first. Cheers for now Jude from judesstuff.

Yippee I finished Singing in the Rain and thanks Susan for the tips for the points of my unbrella. I am pleased with how it looks and have picked out the colours for the Cuppa and can't wait to get started - I am really enjoying this SAL.

Yahooooooooooooooo it is finally finished. Had a bit of a sidetrack towards Secret Santa sewingwhich held works up a little. But it's finally done. I am sooooooooooooo happy to have started this and finished in the same year. Quite amazing.So a BIG thank you to Chooky for organising the stitch-a-long and the whip cracking OUCH motivation.

The binding nearly sewn.

Close up of the quilting.I quilted stars in the final border and mistletoe in the narrow border.This held me up as I had a bit of trouble with quilting around the stitchery blocksit was turning out uneven and pulled even while using a walking foot!!!!!So much nasty reverse sewing for the Perfectionist.

and TA DAAAAA finally completed

although not a very justifiable photo.

But I loooooooooooooooove it.

Thanks for the journey and while I am not taking part in the SKofW stitch a longas I have toooooooooooooooo many UFOs to get finished I wish youall heaps of fun with and maybe when the next stitch a long is hereI will join in then.

I didnt think I would ever make up my mind to what fabric I wanted to use for Some Kind Of Wonderful quilt. I loved Annie's and I saw it hanging up at the AQM yesterday and realised that this fabulous range of fabric called Lil' Rascals by Chloe's Closet for Moda was just perfect for it as its fun like the quilt.

All the right colours and tones ...MMmmmm....but I still have to find some background fabric and I will do as soon as I unpack this bundle of FQ's.

I got it at the AQM yesterday and am so pleased that I can finally get started on Some Kind Of Wonderful and won't be left behind.

Annie is sending me the book and I asked her to sign it for me before she posted it and she said she would... How special is that?

Yeah, I'm finally up to date with my blocks and you know the hardest part really was just starting. What with DD's wedding, babysitting for a week and a bad case of the blahs where my sewing mojo shot through for a few days I really didn't think I'd be here loading up my photo. So here it is:

Now, if you look at these blocks and think that maybe there is something wrong with them, you'd be right! My lack of concentration and mojo saw me not being as careful as I'd like to think I normally am so that when I was busy tracing onto the 'Vleisofix', I didn't do the reversal thing so some of the wording is round the wrong way. Oh well, I guess it makes it a little more individual :)

Hi There! I'm Sasha and I'm lucky enough to be quilting and blogging along with this wonderful quilt!!! Mine is out of civil war fabrics from my stash and bits of wool here and there- so it will be nice and dark and cozy!!!

I'm replacing the cherries with wool- I'm not happy with the little corners! It's not sewn down or embroidered yet- I'm thankful we have until the end of december!!! I'm on my clinical placement at the moment for my nursing degree so not much is getting sewn- two weeks left then I can sew sew sew to my hearts content! See you soon!

It has been raining here for the last couple of day, so after finally choosing my fabrics and choosing the quick blanket stitch applique I have all my first 5 block ready to stitch. A quick trip to Spotlight in Campbelltown to pick up the DMC cottons I don't have and an evening of sewing looks in order. Like Suzitee I have written Sue S on my luggage tag, because there is always more than one Sue. Some will notice that the handles are around the wrong way - not for me they aren't I'm left handed.

Hi fellow stitchers - I am just so thrilled to be included in the Stitch-A-Long for Some Kind of Wonderful. I have had my fabrics/book for some time and now I can commence the journey and join in all the fun!

I have been viewing all of the great work posted so far and I must say they truly are "wonderful". This will be my first attempt at needle turn and I must say am looking forward to the challenges ahead.

I have been very slow to get organised, I wanted to use the Terrain layercake by Kate Spain for my blocks but finding someone who has yardage in Australia has been almost impossible. My Patch in Milton has some on ebay so I might try them. I have picked 3 creams to be the background, 2 charm packs of Central Park by Kate Spain for the smaller patchwork squares and 6 wonderful matching Kona solids fro the strips between the blocks.I am now going to copy them onto the fabric and start stitching.
Sue S

So, I have a question. I am attempting the needle turn applique. Can everyone help me with what they put on the back to stabilize for stitchery? Do you needle turn the pieces first and then add stitchery backing before you do the stitchery?

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

I've made a start on "My Favourite Things", and I just have to say...these blocks are so addictive!

I'm taking the easy option and going with blanket stitch. Learning a new technique takes more time than what I have to spare at the moment, and I really really really love the texture of blanket stitch :)

Cutting out all the little patchwork squares was probably the most time-consuming part, but thankfully, they are all done now :)

A cute little strawberry teacup...I DO love my tea !

Some polka-dotty blue jeans...probably a couple of sizes too small for me, by the looks of them :)

A suitcase all ready to head off on a holiday...how nice would that be right now? I've stitched my "bloggy name" on my luggage tag, because most of you know me as Suzitee :)

I guess this means I have to put this project away for a little while now...which is probably not a bad thing, because I've had lots of trouble putting it aside to do other things.

In other news, my Gardeners Journal quilt has FINALLY arrived back from the quilters (it's been there since Christmas last year!!!) so hopefully I'll be able to share the finished quilt with you soon. I'll be so excited to finally cross that one of my to-do list!

Hi Everyone,I'm back to do the SKoW quilt with you all. I did the GJ one, but did not continue with TTS. I did however keep an eye on the blog so I was able to see all the lovely variations.Lynda and I have worked out this 'e-mail to blog' thing. If you're reading this it means it worked! I'm sharing an entry place with her, so Chooky can get as many of us on here as possible.I had a lot of fun stash searching to get my fabric. I wanted to buy as little as possible. I didn't have enough creams and beiges or something suitable for the jeans, so I let myself shop for those.I have been carefully watching this DVD while I sew and reading the Thimblelady's applique book. The only needle turn I have done previously was another Anni Downs project that we did in Nundle this year and it only had a small bit of applique. This quilt is a challenge then.First block is done and the umbrella is coming along. Curves hmmmmmm!

Well, I have been watching and enjoying all the progress that everyone is making. But that is just about it! I have had a sick little girl for the last couple of weeks and before that I was unwell, so there has been very little stitching going on since my first burst of activity. What I have done though is not exactly going perfectly well...

...starting with the teacup. I had started sewing it on but then stopped as I'm not happy with the handle, and I REALLY need to change that brown fabric!

...then the jeans. I really do love, love, love these jeans, but.... For all of the background I am using the cream fabric from my Fat Quarter Shop BOM as it also Moda so the weave is the same, and because I have run out of funds to purchase any more material (boo hoo!). But I don't have any pieces big enough for the jeans block. Can you tell me if it is okay to have the fabric facing different directions? I mean will it pull in a different direction and be obvious? Does that make sense?

...then the umbrella. It was the first piece I made, then once I had done the cup and the cupcakes I realised there was too much red in that corner. So I then made another one using different fabric, only I didn't pay enough attention to the pattern, and now I dont' like the blob of white on one side. So I have to make another one!

...finally the cupcakes. I am happy with this block (what a relief you say!). The cakes are sewn on apart from the cherries ..I have to redo them as they have little points all over them. But I started on the backstitch last night, and I just can't make it look good. I chucked it down in disgust and that is where I left it.

So there you go. I'm feeling a little sorry for myself but I'm sure most of it is because of lack of sleep and lack of time. This will only improve now that Little Miss is on antibiotics, and I will be back to my old self and loving every minute of this project. Apart from the backstitch....grrrrh!!!!

By the way here is a photo of the fabric I'm using. It's Sophie by Moda. I really love it.